Here’s a great photo submitted by Gideon A. of Boston, MA for our 2009 calendar photo contest. Of course, it’s a shot of our famous Giant Cow during her visit to Massachusetts not too long ago.

If you’ve got any ice cream or iced tea photos lying around, please submit them on the photo contest page of our website (the deadline is June 15). The best photos will earn a spot in our 2009 calendar. Remember, your photo MUST INCLUDE ice cream or iced tea and if it also includes a Turkey Hill package or logo, that’s even better. Of course, Gideon’s photo doesn’t contain ice cream, iced tea or a logo, but that’s okay because our Giant Cow is so recognizable on her own!

Exciting news! This Friday, a camera crew from the Food Network show “Unwrapped” will pay a visit to the Dairy to tape a segment for an upcoming episode about peanut butter. The focus of their cameras will be on how we make Creamy Commotions Moose Tracks ice cream—an irresistible combination of vanilla ice cream, Moose Tracks fudge and peanut butter cups.

For those of you don’t already watch Unwrapped on the Food Network, you don’t know what you’re missing. The show takes an inside look at how some of America’s favorite foods are made with each episode featuring a different type of food.

We’ll be sharing the spotlight with Denali Flavors, the company responsible for developing the Moose Tracks flavor of ice cream. Feel free to check out the Denali Moose Tracks website for more information about their award-winning ice cream concoctions.

We’ll try to find out when the episode will air and let you know as soon as we can. We’ll also be sure to take lots of pictures of their visit to our corner of Lancaster County and post them here on the Ice Cream Journal next week!

This is, of course, a Turkey Hill ice cream blog, but we recently found something online and we wanted to featured it here on the Ice Cream Journal. It’s a home made commercial for our iced tea and we have to admit, the camera work isn’t half bad! Feel free to check it out below and let us know what you think.

This video actually got us thinking about the possibilities of a contest here on the Ice Cream Journal that asks all of you to try your directorial hand at creating your own commercial for Turkey Hill ice cream. Nothin’ fancy. Just some ice cream and a few actors. Do you think it’s a good idea?

The 9th Annual Turkey Hill Country Classic was held this past Saturday. The weather was overcast, but it ended up being a wonderful day for the runners and bike riders (over 550 athletes competed!). There were games, rides, face painting, and some fun running events for kids of all ages. Of course, there were also free Hatfield hot dogs, Herr’s potato chips, and Turkey Hill ice cream and drinks.

The Pennsylvania Dairy Princesses were also there to help scoop samples of Turkey Hill’s All Natural Philly Style line of ice cream (below is a photo of one Princess in action). All proceeds from the event benefited the Lancaster Farmland Trust as well as a portion of the sales from our All Natural Philly Style ice cream. Congratulations are due to all of our competitors! Feel free to check out the Country Classic portion of our website for results of all the day’s races. And if you weren’t there, hopefully we’ll see you next year on May 2nd, 2009!

Those are the words of Baskin-Robbins co-founder, Irvine Robbins, who passed away on Monday at the age of 90.

Irvine was an important figure in ice cream history. His stores were among the earliest franchised scoop shops. The first was founded in 1945, and today there are more than 5,800 locations worldwide. Even though Baskin-Robbins is known for their “31 Flavors,” they’ve actually created over 1,000 varieties in the past 63 years, including special flavors to commemorate the moon landings, our nation’s bicentennial and the arrival of the Beatles in 1964. It was his love of new and unusual flavors that helped separate Irvine’s shops from their competitors, and ushered in an era of flavor experimentation that is seen throughout the ice cream industry today.

Like Turkey Hill, Irvine’s ice cream dream began humbly. In December 1945, after a stint in the U.S. Army, he opened his first ice cream shop in Glendale, California using $6,000 his father had left him. On the first day, he sold $53 worth of ice cream, $39 of which was purchased by his cousin, Sybil. A few years later, Irvine teamed up with his brother-in-law, Burton Baskin, to form the Baskin-Robbins partnership we know today. The brothers tossed a coin to decide whose name came first.

Yes, Irvine Robbins will be missed, but his memory and the influence he has had on the world of ice cream lives on. It lives on in Rocky Road ice cream, a flavor he helped create. It lives on in ice cream cake, which his shops invented and made available to the public. It lives on because ice cream lives on, and every man, woman and child has a soft spot in their hearts for that frosty treat.

“Everybody has a proprietary interest in ice cream,” Irvine once told the New York Times. “All you have to do is mention ice cream, and everybody has a flavor.”

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cinco de Mayo is an unofficial holiday that celebrates Mexican culture, usually observed with food, music and dancing.

Oddly enough, the day is more widely celebrated in the United States than it is in Mexico. And contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo isn’t the observance of Mexico’s independence day (that would be September 16th). The day actually commemorates a key victory by the Mexican army over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

So if you’re planning your own Cinco de Mayo celebration by cooking up a Mexican themed dinner tonight, don’t forget to add Turkey Hill’s April Limited Edition flavor – Fried Ice Cream – to your shopping list. (Here’s a recipe, in case you can’t find it in a store near you.) This flavor is our ode to one of Mexico’s favorite desserts and we’re pretty sure you’ll find it delicioso.

Is it really May already? Hard to believe, isn’t it? Hopefully some more of that warm Spring weather we saw last week returns soon. It’d be nice to see some of those temperatures this weekend during our Country Classic (Saturday from 7am to 2pm, in case you forgot).

Our April Ice Cream Journal poll asked you which flavors you’d like to see in next year’s Ultimate Flavor Tournament. According to your votes, the favorites are: 

Premium Flavor – Columbian Coffee
Light Flavor – Banana Split
All Natural Recipe – Chocolate
Creamy Commotions – Moose Tracks
Limited Edition – Southern Lemon Pie
Frozen Yogurt – Orange Cream Swirl
Duetto – Root Beer

Congrats to the fans of all those flavors. They will be among the many other flavors facing off in next March’s ice cream throw down.

As for this month’s poll (on the right), we want to know how many containers of ice cream you have in your freezer RIGHT NOW? Is it one or two, or are you one of those people (like many of us) who have to rearrange the meat and frozen veggies to make room for yet another container of French Vanilla? Feel free to sound off with your answer and with a comment below.

Each year the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) gives out awards to the best promotional efforts by its members. This year’s awards were handed out at the IDFA’s annual SmartMarketing Conference in New Orleans, La.

As members of the IDFA, we entered our promotional campaign for Duetto in the category of “Best Overall Mixed Media Campaign,” which basically includes any marketing campaign that uses multiple methods of promotion or communication. The Duetto campaign definitely fits that description. It used TV ads, billboards, the internet, a public relations campaign, Giant Cow sampling events and much, much more.

After all the competition was scrutinized, analyzed and judged, our Duetto campaign won first place in “Best Overall Mixed Media Campaign” AND it won “Best in Show”! According to our Consumer Marketing Manager, Melissa Mattilio, the Duetto campaign is “one of the most successful new product launches in company history.” That’s says a lot considering we’ve been launching new products for over 75 years.

Needless to say, everyone here at Turkey Hill is extremely happy about the award. It means a lot to us recognized by the IDFA. They’re a big part of the dairy industry, with over 570 members. Below is a picture of the Turkey Hill team with our new award. We’re still trying to figure out where to hang the plaque.

We just finished taking a look at some of the traffic and comment totals on the Ice Cream Journal during the Ultimate Flavor Tournament and we have to admit, we’re impressed! In terms of total visitors to the blog and total comments, March was the second best month ever in the Ice Cream Journal’s 17-month history.

Of course, we owe it all to you – our readers. Thanks for making March such a successful month and thanks for all of your comments on various entries. We love hearing from you, so keep those comments coming!

Speaking of comments, below are nine of our 10 winners of the one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream we gave away to randomly selected comments during the Flavor Tournament.

Holly K. from Rockville, MD
Sherry S. from Montgomery, PA
Mary F. from Williamsport, PA
Heidi B. from Jamestown, NY
Loretta C. from Minoa, NY
Christina M. from Somerdale, NJ
Anne K. from Macungie, PA
Charles K. from Frederick, MD
Maureen B. from Westville, NJ

Congrats to all. We’re still waiting to hear back from the tenth winner. We’re also waiting to hear from the winner of the grand prize – the ONE YEAR supply of ice cream. It’s funny (sort of). This is the third time we’ve given away a one year supply of ice cream on the Ice Cream Journal and each time the winner has waited a loooong time to claim their prize. Maybe they’re just making room in their freezer!

That’s a Saturday, so your day should be wide open already, right? Hopefully it is, because on May 3rd, Turkey Hill will be hosting its ninth annual Country Classic at the Central Manor Church of God in Washington Boro, right here in Lancaster, PA. If you’re printing directions via MapQuest, the address is 387 Penn Street, Manor Township in Lancaster. 

The Country Classic features sporting events for runners and cyclists, but it also includes lots of fun and games for the whole family. There will be free kids rides, games, costumed characters, music and, of course, the baby derby (featuring the fastest babies around!).

Turkey Hill’s very own Giant Cow will also make an appearance along with plenty of Turkey Hill ice cream and drinks, Hatfield hot dogs, and Herr’s chips. Snacks and drinks will be available by donation with all proceeds benefiting the Lancaster Farmland Trust. The Lancaster Farmland Trust is an organization Turkey Hill is very passionate about because they work hard to preserve beautiful farmland throughout Lancaster County.

More information about the Country Classic can be found on our website. Hope to see you there!